1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure is directed to a backlight unit and a liquid crystal display having the same, and more particularly to a backlight unit and a liquid crystal display having the same that can achieve uniform luminance over the entire display screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A liquid crystal display, which is one of most widely-used flat panel displays at present, includes substrates having electrodes thereon, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates. The liquid crystal display controls the amount of light transmitted through the liquid crystal layer by applying a voltage to the electrodes to rearrange liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer.
Since these liquid crystal molecules display an image by changing the transmittance of light depending on the direction and intensity of an electric field, the liquid crystal display requires light to display an image. Exemplary light sources used for the liquid crystal display include a light emitting diode (LED), a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) and a flat fluorescent lamp (FFL).
Most of the conventional liquid crystal displays generally employ the CCFL, but recent liquid crystal displays show a tendency to employ the FFL and LED. Particularly, recently, the LED having a low power consumption and high luminance has been widely used for the liquid crystal display.
However, such an LED is a point light source, which emits light at a predetermined angle of less than 180 degrees. Therefore, although a plurality of LEDs are disposed in a row and emit light, a dark space is formed in a region located between the LEDs, so that the luminance of the display screen is non-uniform.